Hi everyone, I’m just starting out learning Japanese as my 3rd language on my own. I Purchase two types of software, "unforgettable Languages, Linkword Japanese" and "Power Japanese"

After about 10min of "linkword Japanese" I put it away due to it’s just a memorization technique using the English language to fall back on for each word. In other words not for me!

As for "Power Japanese" it seem to be working in a good directions, I have started off with learning the Hiragana Syllables, with the proper Pronunciation, speaking and hearing and Writing. and them moves into a few directions such as Formal Grammar, Colloquial Usage, Word Order, and memorization.

I have started Practing writing the Hiragana and recognizing them when I hear them, I’m trying to limit my English usage as much as possible between the two so I don’t have to fall back onto English to understand every thing I read, write, or hear or say. (easier said then done) I have gotten to a point where I can hear a word in Japanese and write out the kana syllables in it (still a tad rusty)

I’m not sure if this is a good way to learn Japanese??? when I was in school for French for many years, they teacher us by associating English to French, for every bit of it, draw back was, for everything you heard, say, wrote, or read in French you had to translate word for meaning back to English to understand it.

I have seen one or two problems I'm having right know, one is I have notice that the hiragana seems to not look the same everywhere, and I know one is pen stroke and one is brush, but even in MS Word slight varies from it self. Also some of the charts you can down load from the net varies, does anyone know what I'm Talking about??? if so can someone help me with this please?? Is there a standard??

Also, how do I turn my keyboard on and off to write in Hiragana and where can I get a print out of the keyboard lay. This would be nice for write up some of my practice material, (lol the program I have "power Japanese" has somewhat of a keyboard lay out on it, but its no where the same as a standard keyboard, but I have notice a problem with learning with a keyboard, its seems you remember where the hiragana is and not the hiragana it self, so I usually have to scramble that keyboard so not to lead to any bad habits)

Sry I made this so long, but this is just a very intresting language and I get excited about it, I even find myself at work writing and studding & practicing in the car. it’s a drug I tell you lol

If anyone knows of any bad habits to stay away from please let me know.

If you look around on the site, I'm sure you can find something on how to type in Japanese, I mean its real self explanatory, you should be able to figure it out yourself. Just go into IE -> Internet Tools if you want to view it. And you should be able to install the ability to write via control panel. If you need the CD just go to microsoft.com (I'm assuming you use Windows, preferably XP)

I've never heard about your program, but it seems like your going into the right direction by learning the kana.

As far as bad habits go, stay away from romaji, and don't do anything too out of order. Try learning the Kana before you do anything, then move onto kanji and grammar. If you want tests, for kana and kanji just search google. If you can't find any, feel free to PM me.

Goals:
1) Have decent proficiency in Japanese, enough to get around/talk/read/write.
2) Visit Japan for a week or so one summer.

Also some of the charts you can down load from the net varies, does anyone know what I'm Talking about??? if so can someone help me with this please?? Is there a standard??

I learned Kana just to find out later that a lot of fonts display some characters differently. The charts I learned from displayed RI, SA, KI, etc different than other places such as video games and many computer fonts where instead of RI being one stroke it is actually more like 2 strokes. Screwed up my reading/writing and kana recognition up pretty good for awhile.

Also, how do I turn my keyboard on and off to write in Hiragana

IME that comes with Windows which allows you to type Kanji/Kana in any application while easily switching back and forth from English<->Japanese, if your using that OS (Control Panel->Regional/Language Options)

I learned Kana just to find out later that a lot of fonts display some characters differently. The charts I learned from displayed RI, SA, KI, etc different than other places such as video games and many computer fonts where instead of RI being one stroke it is actually more like 2 strokes. Screwed up my reading/writing and kana recognition up pretty good for awhile.

I’ve have already started having this problem, since I pulled together a few different materials to learn the Kana, I’m seeing a difference. ahhh lol

This my cause a problem in the program that’s my brother is making. The program is being made to be a refresher curse over my material of the kana. What it has is a sound bite of each kana and a button for each one, the buttons are placed random on the screen and the sounds are random. On top of that I hopping to put in close to about 300+ words to be spelled out in kana by sound. Now if I can only get him to finish the program. lol

oh thanks for the link to the keyboard site

Last edited by KINGZ on Sun 06.25.2006 1:52 am, edited 1 time in total.